City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll now call this meeting of Jacksonville City Council to order welcome everyone who's come out tonight. We have a house full of folks and a lot of folks be watching on G10 television. To begin the meeting tonight, we'll start with the pledge of allegiance led by council member Jerome Willingham, followed by the invocation by our city manager. Please rise. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let's pray. Our most gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the many beauties that you give us and the opportunity to be here together as a community. Uh Lord, we ask for uh we ask for understanding for everyone in the room tonight so that voices are heard and that uh people are able to listen and hear what's actually being said. Lord, we ask for wisdom and guidance to the mayor and the council as they make decisions that will shape uh today and the future of our community. Lord, we ask for uh the many blessings that you give us today to to grow inside of our hearts so that as we move forward, we are better better as individuals, better as as people, better as as a city. Lord, um we ask for special blessing for for the youth of of Jacksonville, for the youth of Enso County. Lord, there's so many challenges today that face face our kids. And so, uh, we just ask for that ability to to think through opportunities and challenges that they may see and the barriers. And we ask for for their ability to to leaprog all those challenges, to face them head on, and to come out successful, Lord, because we're all we're all one family that just focuses on uh to lead the community into a better place. Lord, we're we're grateful for the time together. We're grateful for this form of government and the ability to to be together in this room and uh we're thankful for the blessing that that we can be here today. Lord, thank you so much for your love and for your mercy. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Please be seated. Council, you've been provided with the agenda for the proposed agenda for tonight's meeting. At this time, I would entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. So move second. Go ahead, Mr. Mr. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Hear none. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

All opposed. Okay, we're going to go to our first section of p public comment this evening. I know a lot of folks are here on specific on specific issues on the agenda. Uh and you signed up on this sheet here. Uh we're going to have separate public hearings for those matters. So, um I do have is there anyone here that signed up for public comment that's not related to these annexation and uh okay, Miss Fiser, if you would come to this podium over here. Good evening, council, mayor, and council. I'm going to start off with a a scripture because the city manager did make a prayer made reference. Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." Jacksonville proudly promotes unity throughout phrases such as one city, our city, my city. These are powerful words. However, they must be supported by visibly, intentionally, historically, and publicly celebrated. If not, it creates a gap between the message and the lived one experiences of many African-Americans residents here right here in Jacksonville. African-Americans here in Jacksonville have continued

contributed significant to Jacksonville culture, economic, military and civic life. Our stories, our leadership, our businesses, our neighborhoods, our service to this nation are woven into the fabric of this city. Yet these contributions are often missing from the city branding and public facing identity. Now, what are we going to do? How we make this wrong, right? I'm glad you asked. That's what my pastor was saying. I'm glad you asked. See, it's not about blaming anyone. Not blaming anyone. It's about taking on your responsibility. It's about aligning up our public identity with our true identity. It's about ensuring that every resident feels seen, valued, and included. Jacksonville is stronger when we all are people that are visible. Unity slogan. I'd like to see more people like us. We've never had a person like us for a mayor. We never had a person like us for a pro tip mayor. Come on now. We're Christians. We're believers. I hear you praying in the Lord. I know I'mma watch my time, but you know how to hold. But we have an opportunity now to get it right. I had a private conversation with the city manager. He's my friend. And I asked him, I know there was a plaque that was given with I think it was called racial equity proclamation. I was here where that was given, Dr. Wash. I think you part of initiated that. But I haven't sum up anything.

You need to sum it up. Your time is gone. I'm sorry. Thank you so much, Mayor. But what I'm saying is I've asked for a larger uh picture of that proclamation and we haven't seen it yet, but I know you're working. But thank you so much what you're doing. Thank you allow me to speak this evening. God bless you real well. All right. Melanie Marc, are you still Is Melanie still here? Oh, there you are.

Hello everyone, council mayor. Um Melanie Marzette 403 Alta Vista Loop. Uh, first of all, I'd like to shout out um the recreation um department um for the African-American readin uh that uh was on I believe this past um last Sunday, the first the second Sunday. Um they did a great job and the media crew that was there to film it, they always do a great job. They've been with it for several years now, so I appreciate their effort. Um I I would like to say um you know the readin is once a year. This was the 22nd. It would have been nice to have more uh council there. Uh the mayor, city manager, um uh when we used to have it at the uh senior now adult center, uh you would have three or four at least from council and the mayor would come out every year. Um, I think it's important, um, as a veteran, I think it's just as important when you go to the veteran, uh, uh, ceremonies to come to that reading. And I understand you can't make it to everyone. U, however, if you've never gone to one, I hope that you would put it on your calendar for uh, next year. They did a great job and it's really the only time that you are able in all these events that the city holds uh to really meet and have a more intimate conversation with your constituents uh with the with the participants that see your the city calendar. They can put a face to the calendar that they see. You had a bunch of teenagers there. Um and to personally acknowledge the staff. It is great to send out an email thanking everyone for a job well done. But one of the things

that I always admired about uh Mr. Warden as a council member is that he always made it a point to know your name where you work, come out to some of these events, come up to you, shake your hand, ask you how you were doing, and tell you that you're doing a good job. So it matters. So just remember that for next year. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else sign up the sheet for public comment other than for the issues to follow? All right. With that, we're going to move on to adoption of the minutes and the consent items. The minutes are from the January 5th, 2026 special workshop meeting.

Move approval of the minutes and consent items. Second. Have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Hear none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed.

Okay, we're going down to item number four on the agenda and this is a satellite annexation for Stallion Crossing. It's a 6.668 acre plus or minus 6 uh.88 88 acres. And Mr. Massie, you're going to be presenting that item.

Mayor, before Mr. Massie starts, I just want to say the microphone volume is a little low right now, so we're having media try and turn up the volume just so everybody can hear, but they're working on it right now. So, just I think you should be able to hear Mr. Massie as he gets going. Mayor and councel, uh, the city has received a request for a satellite voluntary annexation on behalf of Bobby R. Morton by, uh, request was submitted by Tidewater and Associates uh, with a petition for voluntary annexation of two tracks of land totaling 6.68 68 acres. That's outside the current city boundaries. The uh what what I want to do is go over the process that we've been through to this point. First of all, voluntary sat satellite annexations are authorized by the state law. The the property owners uh submitted a request for voluntary annexation. They submitted the petition. Once the city clerk received that, she investigated the annexation for sufficiency in compliance with the the state law and under the authority that council gave the city clerk to do this investigation. Once the clerk certified that this complied with all the requirements of state law, the council was presented the petition and the council was required to basically accept the petition and schedule a public hearing. And this was accomplished on February 5th. We now are at the point where the the council will conduct a public hearing.

And after the public hearing and all the input received, the council will have to make a decision on approval of the annexation if it's found in the best interest of the city of Jacksonville. The financial analysis uh on this annexation uh shows that that it would result in a positive cash flow over a 5-year period of $1,77,000. Now this this site is is proposed to to uh be a commercial site where 26 commercial businesses would be uh located or would operate from. It's located at the intersection of Maplehurst um old Maplehurst Road and Burg Highway. And that the uh this annexing this subdivision or this parcel these parcels would contribute to the economic development and growth of the city would provide additional housing which as the council learned in the DFI study that was done that there is a shortage of housing in the city and Jacksonville in the city of Jacksonville and in Enso county. It would also enable this uh area to receive services from the city where we would provide public safety services and it it would be built in an environmentally friendly manner utilizing public water and public sewer and it would be under the storm water management of the city of Jacksonville. Uh for these reasons, the staff

recommends the council adopt the annexation ordinance as presented. Okay. Any questions of Mr. Massie at this time? You representative for the applicant want to make any statement.

Jason H 306 new bridge street. Uh I'm representing the applicant tonight. We're asking for this area to be annexed into the city. Uh the reason for the annexation is we would like to have city sewer. Uh as this area is tributary to the southwest regional lift station that is a city sewer, uh we have to come and and request that from you. Uh if you deny it, the the project still moves forward. you have uh county zoning in in place to be able to develop and we would then therefore be able to use the agreement that you have with Anwasa uh for this sewer for this area to provide sewer to it. So the question just is whether or not you want to annex it and have it in the city.

Thank you. Any questions of Mr. Hson? So at this time we're going to go ahead and uh recess the regular meeting and open up a public hearing on this uh agenda item. Is there anyone present wishes to speak to this annexation? All right, seeing no one, we close the public hearing and council, you being asked to uh consider the annexation ordinance. Mayor Phillips, I make a motion to recommend that the council adopt the annexation ordinance as presented. Second. I have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I.

All opposed. going to number five. Good evening. So, following the annexation um of the property, we do have to establish city zoning. The property again is located at the intersection of Burgal Highway and Old Maple Hurst Road. Um and it is about 6.7 acres total. The request for zoning came from Tidewater and Associates on behalf of Bobby Morton. Um and they have requested a zoning designation of conditional um corridor commercial. The property is currently zoned under Ensley County as highway business conditional. Um we did post notice on the site. We also mailed notice to abuing property owners in accordance with the general statute. Um we also sent certified mail notice to New River and Campleune as required by the um general statute because the properties are within five miles of the bases. Um the properties are also located within our flight path overlay district. Um so certain uses under that flight path overlay do require special use permit. Um and there are some height restrictions under that designation. The planning board um reviewed the request at the regular meeting on February 9th. They did recommend approval of the request. Following that discussion, we met with the applicant and they amended their application to the conditional um corridor commercial designation. Um they've also included a condition that there will be a 10-foot vegetative buffer along the southern property line. Um we feel that that addresses the planning board's comments and so the staff is recommending approval of the resoning. Um we are asking if approved that council include in the adoption of the ordinance that the land use plan be amended because this area is outside of our jurisdiction

currently. We'll have to amend the land use plan to um adopt a land use designation for the property. Um, sir, requesting your consideration and approval of the zoning map amendment um by accepting the items found in um findings of fact A throughJ and the affirmative and I can answer any questions that you have at this time. Okay, any questions for Jennifer? Thank you. Thank you.

It's a required public hearing in this matter. So, we're going to recess the regular council meeting and open up public hearing again. Let me uh preface this because we got several public hearings. So, please uh listen carefully to this instructions that I'm going to read. You're asked to come to the lectern and to clearly state your name and address so that the clerk can properly enter into the record. Each speaker will be allowed only one opportunity to speak. So, please organize your thoughts before coming to the podium. We have allotted a maximum time per speaker of no more than five minutes and we request that groups designate a spokesperson to address the group's concerns. In the interest of time, we ask that if another speaker has already raised a point or addressed your concern that it not be repeated. So with that, does anyone wish to speak to this matter? Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Councilor, you've been asked to consider the zoning map amendment.

Mayor, I move that we um approve the zoning map amendment as stated. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Hear none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed. Moving on to number six. This is another map amendment. This is for zoning map amendment for the corner of Piney Green Road and Carver Drive. Uh it's a reasonzoning of three parcels from residential single family uh to corridor commercial. Ryan, you'll present this item. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, Mayor Council. Hold on just a minute. Ryan,

we cannot hear you back here, sir. All we hear is a bunch of m we cannot make it out. Okay, let's let's see if we can fix the sound on it.

They have to do the right voice.

How about now?

Okay, we'll move the microphone a little bit closer. I didn't want to yell, though. All right, Ryan, go ahead. Thank you, mayor, city council. I move my mic, so hopefully you'll be able to hear me as well. So, this next request is a staff a city of Jacksonville staff initiated request to reszone three parcels of land at the corner of Piney Green Road and Carver Drive. Uh, this is a proposal to reszone the property from residential single family 20 to Corridor Commercial. This started based on discussions with the county about some property they own, which is the transfer station, for some possible future development. um that led staff to have conversations with the two adjoining property owners based on the development pattern of the area and looking at the land use plan and also the zoning of the area. Uh because of the general statutes, we do have signed applications from all three property owners since this is a staff initiated request. They are all in support of the change. Uh before you is the aerial uh photograph of the site. As you can see, Pine Green to the right. NC24 is is just off the bottom of the screen. So, the Food Line Shopping Center is just off to the south. So, we have existing and proposed zoning before you. The green area is the residential single family 20 zone that the property currently has. And as you see here, um sorry, um the area to the right shows the proposed quarter commercial. And you can see that the property adjoining to this and across the street and also a little bit further to the south where the shopping center is is also zoned the same way with quarter commercial. The city of Jacksonville's camel land use plan identifies this area as mixed use. So the land use plan is supportive of this proposed change. So we will not have to amend the camel land use plan should city council approve this resoning request. Um, as Jennifer mentioned before, we have sent the letters out, posted the

signs, and also the newspaper advertisements in order to provide that statutory requirements to let the public know of the intended public hearing and proposed reszoning. Uh, last week at the planning board, they did recommend approval of this uh, amendment as is staff. We believe that the proposal is reasonable and uh as you'll find in the the standards and the findings of fact A throughJ, you'll find in the affirmative. I'll be happy to answer any questions that the mayor and council may have at this time. Council, any questions of Ryan.

Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. At this time, we'll recess the regular meeting and open up the public hearing on this agenda item. Uh anyone present wishes to speak to this hearing? No one will close the public hearing and council being asked to consider that re that request. Mr. Mayor, I move that we grant the reasonzoning upon finding facts that is reasonable. It meets the A to J criteria being found in the affirmative and it advances the public interest. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

All opposed? Motion carries. All right. Item number six. This is a public hearing for a satellite annexation on Blue Creek Road of 169. I'm sorry. I'm seven. Excuse me. I can't count. Uh satellite annexation of Blue Creek Road 169.92 acres plus or minus. And Mr. Massie is going to present this item. Mayor, mayor and councel, on behalf of the property owners, um Tidewater and Associates has submitted a petition for the val voluntary satellite annexation of two tracks totaling 169 acres. U property is located uh on Blue Creek School Road at 1420. The developer proposes to build 34 commercial businesses. Uh, let me It's not Blue Creek School Road. It's Blue Creek,

I'm sorry, Blue Creek Road. Blue Creek Road and uh and 494 single family homes with an average value of 357,000. The cost the financial analysis shows a positive cash flow over a five-year review period of $2,256,000. the the uh the staff recommends that council adopt the an annexation ordinance because it it act this uh annexation will contribute to the economic development grow in growth of the city. uh will in fact add additional housing will allow this these residents in this area to receive city public safety services uh water and sewer services and be uh man have include the storm water management of the site. Again, staff recommends the council adopt the annexation ordinance as presented.

Council, any questions of Mr. Massie? I I have a couple questions, Mr. Massie. Um the uh as far as the sewer connecting the sewer with those homes, if it wasn't annexed in the city, then uh they would have septic systems. Is that correct? a septic system or a small package plant. And and really the uh really it's more environmentally friendly to um to use sewer than it is um septic systems, is it not?

That that that's correct. You know, we have a high groundwater levels at many times of the year and that affects the effectiveness of septic systems and what that does is also then ends up with with higher bacteria counts in our surface water bodies and and also with the the fire department. Uh I believe Southwest is a six and Jacksonville is a one. That'll re that'll reduce um the uh response time the insurance calculations for response time the property insurance for fire insurance. That's correct.

And uh and we we have agreements with Southwest. Uh we back each other up. We have mutual aid agreements. And as we we increase some of the the areas that are a little further away from our fire stations, we increase our agreements with our volunteer fire uh stations to provide coverage along with the city providing coverage. And unlike other subdivisions in the county where the roads fail, uh the city would maintain those roads once they were built. Right.

That's right. The infrastructure in this subdivision would be inspected during the construction by the city and it would have to meet the city standards before it was accepted. And then once accepted, the city would be responsible for maintaining the roads and the uh public utilities in the subdivision. Mr. Massie, would you please uh for just just for information purposes for the folks that are here tonight, would you explain the difference between voluntary and involuntary annexation?

Uh yes. The the the laws reference involuntary annexation are very restrictive and the city is limited to uh or very it's very specific as far as the measures that the city must take. If the city intends to voluntarily an involuntarily annex an area, they the the people that own property in that area must agree to it. There has to be a a referendum and and and the referendum has to be voted on by the land owners before we could involuntarily annex property.

So this annexation of this 169.92 plus or minus acres is solely the only area that's being annexed. Correct. That that's correct. We only respond to requests from property owners. Uh and and that's what we're doing right now. Property owners have the right to develop their property in the manner that they, you know, would like to see it develop and if it complies with the laws that apply for the development, then they can do that. And that's same for the taxes, right? That would just be just for that neighborhood, not surrounding. Correct. That that's correct. You know, the entire the everybody in the county pays county taxes,

right? But individual or people that live within municipal boundaries pay in addition to their county tax, they pay a city tax, but that tax covers the additional services. For example, our response time for police is and our fire is significantly different than you find in unincorporated areas and trash recycling and yard waste as well. Right.

That that's correct. We provide a more extensive array of of uh sanitation services. Uh whereas in the county those services have to be arranged by each individual or if they utilize county facilities the individuals have to transport their their debris to the county facility as far as traffic. The metropolitan planning for traffic. Yes. So that that helps uh the city determine what the priorities are if if the traffic volume gets too high. Is that correct?

Yeah. Well, yes, there is a metropolitan planning organization and the role of that planning organization is to identify improvements that need to make the road infrastructure. It's intended to, you know, look on a regional basis and so that organization looks at the the entire county. the in addition DOT on its own who manages the roads that are DO's responsibility they they take annual or periodic traffic counts and they make safety improvements to the roads that's within their funding limitations but then if there's a larger project needed that needs more funding from the state that's a project that would be passed pass to the mil metropolitan planning organization and that would be a project that would be forwarded for consideration for state funding. There there are a number of things for example out there for improvement. One is is Highway 24 out to Pony Farm Road to make it safer. That's a project that's on the state funding list. It's still a number of years in the future, but that's an example. and and there are there's an interchange plan for intersection of 5324 and 258 which will improve the safety and the efficiency of that intersection. That's another project that was identified by the MO and and competed successfully for state funding and that will be improved. The one thing though that that the state is not ahead of ahead of traffic. In other words, the funding is such that they have to wait

for the traffic to be there before they can invest money on the improvements. And so it's it's delayed in the in the in the catching up. And so, but that's the way the the state funding system works. That's how it's always been with DOT. Mr. Massie, you get on the list when it's a need. I don't want um I have a question for you. I know traffic impact and analysis is part of these processes. Um we don't have that information now because it's not in this part of the process. When does that happen?

Well, it it will it will start soon, but one of the problems with the traffic impact analysis is when when we actually get ready to approve plans, you know, it's it's got to be current. So the timing of the traffic analysis impact analysis will depend on the developer schedule on when they plan to do certain things. And so if if they want a decision on approval of the actual construction plans at a certain date, then they have to back off and make sure they've got the traffic impact analysis complete when they seek approval. But it will be completed before construction. Yes, that's correct.

Thank you. And it it could it could include stop, four-way stops or red lights or widening lanes or

Well, it it will look at the impact that this development will have on the roads, the major roads that it connects to. And many times you you see this and when a subdivision goes in, if it's determined that for for for safety to ensure safety, you need a turning lane, you know, both they, you know, in off the main highway or one a right turn lane or a left turn lane, TIA will identify that and that'll be part of the discussions during the approval process. And and when it comes to, you know, I know I've seen some comments about the four-way intersection just down the street. Well, that's something that DO's evaluating all the time, you know, and and when it gets to a point where the traffic volume is such that you need a different traffic management solution, then do the divi the district will in fact start working on that. and we work with them with the MO as well as the city staff to basically highlight areas that we have concerns about to try and improve the traffic safety.

So, there's an opportunity here to to look at the county helping and the city helping if the traffic volume was too great. That's right. the county is part of the the MO and so that they are members and they can vote along with our city members to the planning organization to to raise priority uh for particular projects. Well, the county doesn't fix roads on their own. Is that correct?

They do not. They rely on the on the Department of Transportation. Now, roads outside of subdivisions, you know, the the Department of Transportation is going to manage on their own. When subdivisions that are not in the city have problems with their subdivision roads, that's DOT and the county doesn't play a role in that. So, the citizens really have to report that to do. Whereas, if you're in the city, in this neighborhood, the city would take care of those roads.

That's right. They just call the city. If they call if they have a trash problem, they call the city. If they got a water problem, they'll call the city. If they have a problem with their road, call the city. Okay. Any other questions, Mr. Massie? Anything you need to add? Was there anything to add to that? No, sir.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Okay. Uh there's a required public hearing in this matter. And again, I read you the rules earlier and we're going to go by those. So, at this time, I will recess the regular council meeting, open up the public hearing. Um, I know there's a lot of you here for, a lot of you here not for. Uh, I mentioned something about selecting someone who could be your spokesperson. I don't know if you have someone that wants to be the spokesperson for the whole group or if somebody could add something to whatever the spokesperson may have left out, then you take that opportunity to uh speak on that. So, with that said, do we have any spokesperson?

Mr. Representative Shepard.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council, staff, and those that are here tonight. Um I just want to state that um I got emails about this and complaints from people about this situation. In uh 2011 I went to Raleigh. Uh we had um a bill that was passed because people were concerned about annexation unvoluntary annexation. But that being said and done, a bill was passed. It was uh uh 835. And that bill basically said that people that lived in those areas had a right to an opinion if they wanted to be annexed or not. It's actually 60% of those residents have to say they want to be annexed or not annexed. With satellite annexation, it's something that sort of circumvents that law. I didn't know it worked like this or probably it would have been changed because when you do uh satellite annexation, then most of these people that don't they live in that area, but they don't own that 20 or 300 some acres. So, you're telling that man that owns 300 and some acres or lady or whoever it may be that you can do this. We will satellite annex it, but they have no opinion on it. and they live in the area. They live on Blue Creek Road. Most of these people live around Blue Creek Road, Pony Farm Road. I know them. We're neighbors. Uh with that being said and done, and we put that into place so that they would have an opinion and have an opportunity to voice their complaints. As far as DOT is concerned, I'm going to ask for a study, a road count, see if I can get one sooner than later about Blue Creek Road. I travel Blue Creek Road many times in the morning to go out and eat breakfast with friends. It's inundated with traffic and when school's in, the school buses are there. It's back to from 258 already to the four-way stop. Uh, and I'm a transportation chair. I've been one for several years in Raleigh and I can tell you there's not any extra funds right now for Blue Creek Road that we're behind because we don't have enough uh road tax money coming in and so forth. We're looking for better ways and more ways to find more money, but right now we don't have extra money. And DOT does take care of all the county roads where

uh North Carolina has more public roads than any other state than Texas. and it takes a lot of money to take care of those roads. We are going to update 24 and the bypass there with the uh that's going to happen there, but it's behind schedule also. With all that being said and done, if you live on Blue Creek Road, then the city will not take care of that. They'll take care of the subdivision, but they won't do anything on Blue Creek Road as as uh Mass Rob Messi said, but it's up to DOT to do that. I can tell you there's not funds available to upgrade Blue Creek Road at this point in time. With that being said and done, I think these people that live in that area, and if you don't mind, how many are here are you for annexation in this area? If if you're for it, say so. If you're not, raise your hand. They live these are my neighbors. They live in the southwest area. They live there because they didn't want to be in the city. With that being said and done, you know, with that being said and done, I noticed Mr. Massie several times and I respect him a lot but we disagree on this. He made the comment that it's beneficial for the city.

But is it beneficial for the residents that live in that area to move 300 and some homes in that area and then have all the traffic and all the safety problems at this time? It may be at a later date. But it's not just about being beneficial for the city. It's about what's right for the citizens that live in that area also. Amen.

And I know that um Walmart those was satellite annexed. I know that the low-income housing apartments on Blue Creek School Road with satellite annex. Some people didn't even know that was happening. I would have not known this had I not got a letter and a text from people in that area. They said, "Phil, can you help us?" And I said, 'Well, I'll go and speak on your behalf because I believe that people that live in that area, even though they don't own that 329 acres, it's going to affect them one way or another, positive or negative,

they will not benefit from it. And the road cannot handle the traffic. I can just tell you that. With that being said and done, um I'm going to look at getting a a traffic report to see if I can come up with something sooner than later on this issue. um you know um the Rotary which I've been a member of has a four-way test. Two of those items in the four-way test is is it beneficial to all concerned and is it fair to everyone concerned? I ask you to ask that question. Is this fair to everyone concerned? Not just the property owner that's asking to be annexed, but is it fair to all those people that are neighbors in that community that already live there? and um

and pay tax. Um I appreciate your time and I'm not trying to beat anybody up. I'm just giving the plain facts. There's not a lot of funding rest from transportation right now. We're trying to find ways to create more funding because we want to have better roads and highways. A lot of our projects are behind already. The intersection is behind that Mr. Massie talked about. Um, but until we get more funding, I don't think now is the time to allow that many houses to be built on Blue Creek Road. Um, I appreciate your time. I thank you for being here. But just think about that. Is it fair and beneficial to everybody?

All right. Um, does anybody need to add something he didn't cover? Yes. Step up, please. To state your How about coming over to this uh podium over here, please? I think that's the one that's miked up. If you'd give your name and address to the clerk.

My name is Tim Parker. I live right there off Blue Creek Road. I travel Blue Creek Road every day. Sometimes more than one. More than one. Traffic is terrible already. The dump trucks coming from the city, the dump trucks coming from the county beat the roads up. And that so that's already been pretty much known. But you know sometimes as a human being you do the right thing. You don't do it because it's what you want. It's the right thing to do. Not approve this particular annexation. It's bad for everybody out here. You don't live there. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. None of you people live there to see how it is out there. These residents do not need to put up with this. Now, the builder, the buyer paid millions of dollars for this property. And now they want you to bail them out. They want you to give them 500 houses on one side of this highway and then another 17 acres on that corner. This is not right for us. It's terrible. It is very terrible. And if not only that, did not the planning board vote no for you guys? Is that not what you should do to? You should vote no. Absolutely. You should vote no. Is there anything else I want to say down here? Yes. As far as sewer and septic tank, septic tank works just as good as sewer. Now, you guys back in the day bought 7,000 acres out there that you spray on every day. We know it. We see it. We smell it. We live by it. You don't live by it. So, you're going to put 500 homes on this piece of property and you're going to put it out there and then you're going

to put it out there on 53. How long before you need more land to spray on? That's what you're doing. You're doing all this stuff all the time and you're not thinking about us. So now I once again I say the right thing to do is vote no. Do not approve this. I have some other things in my mind but I won't say them exactly because you probably wouldn't like it. THANK YOU

HIM. And you,

Mr. Mayor, City Council, thank you for allowing people to be here tonight for this public hearing to voice their support or lack of support. I'm Tommy Pard. I've served six years on the board of transportation. So, I know a little bit about highways and I served as a senator for county. So, I knew a little bit about legislation as well. But what I really know about is that the Pard family has owned property on Blue Creek Road from four generations, a 100red years now. I haven't bought here recently. Uh proving this project would would actually benefit me. It really would. I've got a 100 acres, not 100 acres, but 100 lots approved for a for a um a housing development that I would like to have sewer for. But I'm I'm gonna tell you that I I would forego that because this project is just going to make Brook Creek uh Road, a mile and a quarter road into a subdivision highway. That's what it's going to make it. If you've ever traveled out there, and I have all my life, I spent my last two years in high school living on that road. Blue Creek Road is already overt taxed. There's already about 500 homes that's kind of on the drawing board. There's already an apartment comp complex that's been that's been built. But I can tell you right now, if this is approved within three or four years, there'll be another 500 houses down there. Do is not going fourlane Blue Creek Road. I'll tell you that right now. You'll be actually jeopardizing the citizens of this community. Not only those who live on Blue Creek Road, but all those who transfer who actually travel Blue Creek to reach other areas of the county. This is a terrible project. It benefits a few and it causes issues for a whole lot of people. So, I would encourage you not to

pass this. It is not a humane thing to do. It's not the right thing to do. It's going to create chaos. It's going to absolutely uh jeopardize people's lives. Orderly growth. I am all for it. I've been for it all my life. and I have a subdivision on on Blue Creek Road. I built a SW plant out there 40 years ago. The county at that time said, "If you'll build it," Richard Cy was a sanitarian said, "If you'll build it, the county will buy it." Well, I've never had a check in the mail yet, but but I have serviced a few homes out there and there is room for orderly growth. This is going to absolutely create a nightmare and a safety hazard and it's going to be a great imposition. All these people out here and many more who are not here tonight. Not only those who live on Blue Creek, Mr. Mayor, all those who have to transfer that to get to their property out there. This is a very bad idea and I encourage you not to impose this kind of a this kind of a tragedy on on a section of the county. Thank you very much for letting me speak. I see. My name is Matt for Daltry. Y'all guys know me by Mandy. I'm very happy to say I've been calling Jacksonville my home for 74 years. And I'd like to say that some things didn't really come out with staff. I think they tried to sort of fudge on a few items. Nothing has been mentioned about high density. And that's 25 homes per acre, families per acre with with town houses and apartments.

Also, they didn't mention the four-way stop. I call it the suicide stop. If you ever been through there at 7:00 in the morning, you better get ready. But the most important thing is this city council, which a matter of fact, my dad served with Councilman Willingham for 12 years, and I I can understand about orderly growth, but it if you try to get out on on that road, it's it's re it's just about impossible. Also, I'm trying to not repeat what's been told. The school systems haven't been mentioned. Amen.

They are packed to the brim. We can't put nobody else in them. Also, uh this the the staff really fudged on the three miles. I've driven it, measured it. They may be in there. I do not believe the whole project was in that area. They also said that uh staff has found it's adequate infrastructure in the network. They've said that. Is that the truth? The city has also said that uh to get the 10 letter out, 10day letter out, I got mine four days ahead of time. And uh so

some of us didn't get one. I think it was for the fire department. I was I was a member of Jacksonville Fire Department as a volunteer for 40 years. And I'm telling you, the time it takes them to get there, Southwest Volunteer Fire Department will be the first one on the scene and take care of the business. Even if they sent three vehicles, three apparatuses to a structural fire in that area, they got to go to three miles. They got to go to three miles from station number one. That leaves a void in your city. Police department, same thing. I can only hope that you will positively follow the recommendation of the zoning and planning board that the city council approved to take care of this that me that voted unanimously not to approve it. So

I guess that's the truth. So uh I probably said enough. I appreciate your time, Mr. S.

WAIT, after that one. Okay. Remember remember about the repetition rule. You know, I'm going to try. I think I burn. I'll let I'll let you know if you don't. Well, and I think I burned the I mean, I worked on on this all last week. We didn't get any these notices. What was supposed to happen didn't happen. It didn't happen on time. I know that cuz I check with people, but just bear with me. Tell her your name and address.

Jimmy Shaver, 142 Toy Avenue. And I was getting ready to do that. My name is Jimmy Shabber. I live at 142 Toy Avenue as well as 12 other families in a subdivision known as Rolling Creeks Estates on 5 acre tracks. Like folks who choose to live in the city for their own uh reasons and personal choices, we chose to live in the county with more space to enjoy and less traffic.

This annexation will bring the city way of life to our back door with high density development versus what the county approved zoning for wise for almost 150 acres of this property with single family dwelling use only. The remaining 20 acres on the other side of the road would be for highway business use only. And of course, there's going to be a proposal to change the zoning tonight right after this.

I know that this proposed annexation will not subject us to city taxes and zoning at this time. But what about in the future as bills are introduced and get passed by the general assembly? I would have not thought this type annexation would have been now possible in years past. And even if you were to approve this annexation tonight, I would ask that you not approve the resoning request and leave it at the low density type zoning that the county had approved for this property, which better suits the desires and face of our southwest community in which we chose to live. I mean it's I and not to make any difference I retired from New H County. I was retired as their chief electrical inspector. I spent 24 years driving back and forth. I saw these kinds of uh issues and concerns happen between New Hmer County and Wilmington and everything that they had proposed in the final outcome was two different things. It turned out to be a nightmare in most cases. I mean it just did. And I know it's a financial thing. It's a growth thing. But the winners are the developer and the city because I know as the city it's hard to turn away these tax dollars that you're looking at. I mean, I understand that, but it doesn't make it right for the rest of us that have to to deal with the aftermath that, you know, but after it happens. But, you know, just to be heard tonight and and to feel, you know, and I don't I've researched this a lot and most of the time it's a city issues, but the city lost a lot of their annexation powers in 2011, as I think Philip alluded to, but what was unique in my reading and studying this in the 2023 24 session, a town of Somerfield in Guilford County, for the same reasons that we're asking tonight, we're turning a developer away because they in their

small town of about 12,000 folks in a quaint like community were trying to stop those kinds of things from happening with the city. Well, even though the way the law reads now, it's a lot more complicated, but there was a de annexation process for the city of Somerfield. The city of Somerfield lost that thousand acres at the developers request and they built high density in the city. The county took it over. What was unique about that situation and it could be done again although the process is convoluted. The city lost a thousand acres of tax base by that de annexation process. What's to stop the developers from maybe not getting approval from your side of it and approaching also county to do something like that. It might not be possible but it can happen. So I mean it's what's good for the goose is good for the gander I guess is what I'm trying to say you know to say there. Something you need to consider. And that's all I've got to say. I mean, I, you know, I appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight, but 20 years ago, I just didn't think this kind of thing would happen. And it can, and I know it can go out three miles from the uh primary city limits. I mean, it'll result in me selling my property, and you don't care. I know. But like I said, this is our neighborhood. The city is your neighborhood, and we appreciate the kind of environment we've got to live in and raise families in and everything else. And I no disrespect to the city, we chose not to be in the city or be affected by decisions that the city makes like we would be in this case at this current time. Anyway,

thank you. My name is Tom Moreni and I've heard all these people back here talking about the highways and y'all want to put new housing in. All right. I've never been one to try to stop growth. But what I'm tired of seeing is people who have gone out there and tried to help other people where they could in housing and get stomped on like a little roach. Okay. I've had the opportunity to sell my property four times. All four times this city stopped that sale by lying. I have approached the planning board about it and they fired a gentleman that was doing lying. I'm I'm proud of that. That speaks for you. Okay. But here is my question. You're going out there and you're building these all these developers. You're allowing them to build 250,000 and up houses. How about the kid coming out of high school that can't afford that? That's got to stay with mama and daddy. That's the people I represent. Okay? I represent the retired person that did the best he could with his whole life. Now he's like me. He's out there trying to live on what little bit of social security we can get. Right? It's tough on that guys. I don't have a military background, so I don't get a pension. All right? I don't get any of that stuff. I have to live on what I've earned in the past. I went back to teaching college uh school so I could make my ends meet. Okay? I had 60 years an electrician. Most of it was right here in this city. Most of the couple of the people I work

with, they have sat in Sammy's position as a mayor. They've sat on that board up there back from the 50s and on. John El Zang, Lyndon Sutherland, Dan Southern, they've sat in a lot of these positions, several of them s, but they are not at this point taking people like myself that bought this property. I'm not out to make the million dollars like a lot of people are, like these developers are. But if I can take somebody that's struggling and get them on their feet and make a dis help them make a decent citizen out of theirelves, then I've done something and I've got a legacy that follows me and everybody else in this room. We've done something for this city at that point because we help the little people that's going to one day they become the big people. They're going to be sitting in them chairs up there. Why does the city of Jacksonville keep pushing us down? And here's where I'm getting at. When Florence came through, I lost 20 houses that night. That's a heck of a lick. And that's putting it very politely. All right. You take those 20 houses at $650, $700 a month, and I'm cutting the grass. I'm furnishing the water. I'm hauling off the trash for that same money because these people are trying to get on their feet. or they're elderly people that are just trying to make ends meet. I went to the city. Oh, yes, sir. You get it cleaned up, get it beside the road, and they got these big trucks are going to come by and pick it up. All right, Paul Howard, my next door neighbor. I had a trash pile out there. Took me 27 trips to take it to the to the trash dump. Your trucks never showed up that I was promised. The help that I was promised never got there, but everybody in the city and around us got it. But Kennedy Road and up through Blue Creek and all that, we didn't get no help. Even though we got

promised. All right. Now, the whole point in a nutshell is this. If you want to give all this construction and let all this money from these big developers go, go for it. They can live in their big dynasty houses. But when you do that, you're letting the little guy down there smother to death. And that's why they're not staying in this county. I teach school and I teach young college kids just coming in trying to get a trade out. You ought to hear their stories. You might sit down and actually try about some of them and they are busting their hump working 8 10 hours a day and then coming to a class six hours a night trying to do better and every corner they turn they get like me they get slapped in the face. How far have we got to go to wake people up around here? Thank you.

Oh just one thing. Would you tell her your address, please? I'm sorry. I thought I said I'm at 1158 Kennedy Road. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Sam. Mr. Sam. Okay. So, we're going to hear we're going to hear uh I need to hear from the applicants. John, did you have something to add?

Yes. My name is Johnny Shyiver. I live at 1731 Pony Farm Road. I've lived in Jacksonville County since 1948. I've watched it grow from a dirt road on Pony Farm, which was Meet View Road at that time, and po and Dirt Road on Blue Creek Road. And I've watched it grow, and I've enjoyed seeing Jacksonville grow. I've worked in Jacksonville all my life. I uh was a merchant on Western Boulevard for 10 years. I served you folks as a license examiner at the DMV license office here in town till I retired and then I opened a small business at my house and was proud to be able to do it. Uh the traffic, folks, we can't handle anymore. It's just to the point now that you can't even get out of your driveway. It's pony farm. Interstate. Interstate pony farm is what it is. And uh when you come out there to go somewhere, you better have your foot on the accelerator and foot on the brake because that's what it's going to take to get where you're going. But I gradu graduated high school right here at Jacksonville High School. Proud Cardinal. Proud Cardinal. Always been a proud merchant or and a resident of this area. I paid a lot of taxes and I've earned a lot of money by being able to stay here and I appreciate everything that I've ever had. But please don't burden us with this. I live there. my back door opens to where I can see the clearing of the woodland that's going to

be developed. Didn't even want it developed into a housing project to start with, but I don't have any say so on that. And God bless them. But don't put something out there that's going to you're going to have to build a school right now. You don't even have room for all the kids that are in school. you have to put mobile homes out on the on the fields and the lots around that school in order to house the students that you've got. I watched it when they put a big sewer line right across my front yard and uprooted all my beautiful grass. But I was I signed the form. I got my little change that they gave me for going through my property. I saw Jacksonville put their sewage their uh dump out on Meet View Road, which is out past my house. I watched them uh put county water out our way and we were able to hook on to county water and that was mighty nice and and a lot of lot of people were glad that we did. And uh we built schools all around, but this the area that we're in with you, city of Jacksonville, you can drive all over Jacksonville and there's potholes this deep. I have had to go around one today to keep from hitting the front of my car on that pothole. So, how are you going to maintain all the streets in that subdivision? keep up with everything in Jacksonville, your fire department, all of your city employees. It just it don't make sense. And I just wanted to air my thoughts about it and I appreciate you letting me do that. And thank you for my time.

Okay. I don't think we can do any more without repetition there. So, Oh, there's one hand outside. Got two. Good evening.

My name is Julie Tracy. I live at 110 Troy Avenue and I grew up in Jacksonville and left in 1982. Moved to New Hover County. And this is a cautionary tale. I lived in New Hver County for 42 years. I watched them develop Parker Farm and put in Mayfair. I watched them develop landfall. If you've ever tried to drive down Military Cutoff or Eastwood Road, you know, it's it's a traffic burden. It's a traffic burden that is beyond comprehension. And not only that, but the fatalities just keep mounting because it's not safe. These were sleepy little areas that the city of Wilmington annexed and turned into an absolute nightmare through development. I live facing Pony Farm Road and I can tell you the traffic is awful. I know we've discussed this at Nauseium, but it is definitely something that needs to be considered, especially when you look at what's happening to Wilmington, and anyone who ever drives in Wilmington these days complains about how bad and bogged down the traffic is. There are no bypasses and no alternative routes. Thank you.

Thank you. UH, GOOD MORNING. GOOD AFTERNOON. UH, my name is Alan Cook. Live off of Jim Blake Road. I don't really want to be up here, but I'll talk about it. Uh, everybody's talking about traffic, amount of people, this and that, but one thing that nobody has ever talked about here is this gentleman mentioned that there's an agreement with the volunteer fire department. You're putting 494 single family homes and 34 businesses in that near intersection. That volunteer fire department is on Pony Farm Road. Where do you think they're traveling to get to that fire department? They're having to travel on Blue Creek Road and Pony Farm Road and deal with all that traffic. I live out in the county. It takes the sheriff or EMS at least 20 to an hour to get out there for an emergency. So these roads are small country roads with no shoulders. So if there's a police coming down, there's fire trucks coming down. There is no place for anybody to pull over except for putting themselves in the ditch.

So that's where there's an issue there. And you've got fire, EMS, police having issues, that is going to have a problem. And then importing 494 families into a rural area. You're importing crime. So, like I said, it takes 20 to 20 minutes to an hour to get police sheriffs out there or state state police, state uh highway troopers. So now you're importing crime out to that area. Not everybody's nice and there's a I I hate to say it, but there's a lot of people in that area that support the Second Amendment and don't support trespassing. So I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that that is also needs to be a consideration that you are importing crime to an area that's going to impact police and first responders. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. I don't think anybody's going to be able to add anything that's not repetitive at this point. So to move this uh along, I need to give the fours a little opportunity to state their case. So Mr. Hston,

Jason Hston, 306 New Bridge Street. Uh there's been a lot of discussion tonight. I had a whole bunch of stuff I was going to say, but a lot of people stole my thunder. So that happens when you go last sometimes. Um, the one thing I want to say is I think the only question tonight is whether or not the city council uh wants wants the city to grow. That's that's the question at hand. The the only way the city can grow is through voluntary annexation. You know, the city is pretty constrained geographically. You got the military base to your south, you got Hoffman Forest, and you got a lot of development right around the city. All those areas are are off the table. So, you're left with a couple corridors that you can explore to in order to grow your to grow. And Southwest is obviously one of those areas. Uh it it makes sense because you got a lot of infrastructure out there already. You know, we we've heard a lot of people talk about the force main and the sewer, water, all the things that you need to to do to have to have a place like that. Um, something I heard a lot about was, you know, fire protection, police protection. We've already been in talks with the city about providing a location for a fire station, adding a police precinct location, doing all the things to to help make this part of the town. Um the same thing happened when we came and brought the request to the city when we were talking about what we wanted to do to develop. It was the city's request that we added more commercial and and more multif family to make it feel like an actual town. Uh in short, they wanted to to have enough things out there to support the people that were living there. Right? So not everybody's got to drive up down Blue Creek to go to go to town to get something. You'll have something nearby. Let's let's talk about traffic for a second. So, before I came to the meeting, I went to DOT's website and looked up the traffic counts for Blue

Creek Road. Uh the last time they did a traffic count was in 2024, which is pretty recent for DOT. Uh it showed an average daily traffic count of 5,700 cars per day. That sounds like a lot of cars. It does to me if I had that many going by my front door every day. If we just go one street over, let's go down to 111 where we got Katherine Lake Road at Catherine's Lake. Same road, two two-lane road, right? It's got 10,000. Okay, let's go a little further. Let's go over to Stateside. Gum Branch, two-lane highway, same road, 18,000 trips per day.

Now, those th those are those are the same people moving up and down. So, just to say it, Blue Creek's got a lot of capacity left on the table for traffic. Uh, nobody's happy about that, but it's just the way that it is. Lastly, I want to say, hold it down. Hold it down or I'm going to clear the clear the room. He's got his chance to speak. You've had yours.

Lastly, I want to say is that we've already got this project approved as far as zoning with the county. We are prepared to move forward with the county planning. We have just as many houses with the county plan as we do with the city plan. Okay? So, the fact the fact remains with you is whether or not you want to be part of it. Either way, this is developing. We're going to develop. It's going to be homes. We're going to do TAS. We're going to do traffic counts. We're going to have turn lanes. We're going to do all the things. It's going to happen either way. The question is whether or not the city wants to jump on the train with us and and and and or get left behind. You know, this is an opportunity for the city to grow. This is an opportunity for the city to have a door open in this area. And so, I just leave that with you. If you have any technical questions, I can probably answer some of those, too. If not, I'll sit down.

While we have this meeting on our You're out of order, sir. Leave. Get up and leave. Yes, sir. Well, that goes to prove. Put a loose around our neck and hang us. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Now, that was totally unnecessary.

You know, we're going to we're going to keep this civil in here. Like I said, this side the the side that wants doesn't want it had the opportunity to speak. I I even over overstayed my self on that. Allowed a lot more people to speak than I intended to. Let's give them a chance to talk. Like I said, you know, we have to clear the room. We're going to clear the room. Can we have one rebuttal to his statement? No, sir. Who else over here?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, thank you for the opportunity. I guess I'll tell. I'm Jennifer Morton. Um, 503 Newbridge. Thank you guys for the opportunity to speak with you today about this project. We can't hear you. Okay, I will speak louder. Um, I want to acknowledge that sometimes change and growth can be difficult. It can be something challenging um especially for the people most closely impacted by it. But that doesn't mean that it's not necessary for the growth of our city. Um, one thing that the city has been really big on recently is is growth and uh I'm got a border on my notes, but being business friendly as well. We all talk about We can't hear her.

Yeah, very good. Is that better? Can you hear that? Speak up. I will do the best I can. Um, it's echoing now for me. Is it echoing for you? Yes.

Okay. Maybe it's in the middle now. Okay. So, um, one thing we all talk about regularly is housing shortages. And in order to address that, we need development. That's just common sense. This area has been set up for growth long before now. There's Yap Road that's been developed, the bypass, you know, I don't have to tell you all. There's the improvements happening at 53. There's the accessibility to sewer. This area is an area that that's just set up to take this type of improvement. It's also within the city's desired growth path. You've heard, I think Jason alluded to, the fact that um there's only so many directions that the city can go and so this is within one of those directions. We've done a few projects with the city recently, uh, mainly on the north side, and we've appreciated our relationship with the city. Um, we feel like we make a good team together, and we'd like to continue to be a partner in the city's desire for growth. The city has said, like I mentioned earlier a lot, that growth is important to them, um, as well as being businessfriendly. And this is another opportunity to reinforce that statement. We do feel like the city is backing up that statement and would love to see that continue. We know that not everyone wants this as it's pretty obvious. Um, and we fully support their ability to not request annexation of their property. We also have that same right to request annexation. We've met the required criteria and so we're asking you to approve this annexation today. Thank you. Anyone else?

Go ahead and close the public hearing on this matter. Uh, council, you're being asked to con uh consider the annexation ordinance. Mr. Mayor, can I say something? Sure.

So, I sit on the planning board and I was there at that meeting last Monday and the planning board did have some concerns and I do feel like the developer has answered some of those questions. Um, I know the roads have been a big talk about we cannot control those roads. I think your representative Shepard, I think he'd be the man for the job to talk about those roads and try to help you out with that. Um, but as far as the county or the city, we can help that development. And I think you know what the developers have been talking about, I think they have, um, they've answered a lot of our questions and a lot of concerns that we had about that. So, um, I just like to put that out there. Thank you. Anybody else?

Um, Mr. Sosa, can you speak to the county already approving their zoning? Can you speak to that or uh Mr. King where he was out here but he could probably give a little more there he is about on the county side of it because they weren't present at the meeting.

So as far as as far as the county county approvals I cannot speak to that. I think that that the applicants can speak to that better than than I. But as far as the planning board goes we had two requests. Uh, one's establishing a base district that if you so choose to annex this property, we'll talk about with the next item. And then the following item was for a uh an applicant reszoning to change that base district to a plan development district. And the planning board last week, the city planning board recommended denial about the RMFHD, which is residential multifamily highdensity zoning district for the base class. And then when we got to the plan unit development residential, they they denied that or they their recommending board they recommended denial based on the information that they had that night.

So as far as county approvals, I cannot speak to that. What has changed since the planning board? Um, the biggest thing that's that's changed on the plan development district since last week is that we that staff had two concerns from a legal standpoint and the applicant has addressed both of those items and we'll talk about that if you so choose to annex the property with agenda item number nine where they've amended their terms and conditions and also the the plan development master plan. Other questions? All right. Do we have do we have a motion? Nope, you do not, sir.

Okay. Well, do we Is there a motion on this to uh consider the annexation ordinance? I'll make a motion a Excuse me. I'll make a motion to approve. Um and we move forward with the annex satellite anization. I'll second it. There's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hear none. Yes. Okay. Mr. Willingham, you go ahead.

I was just going to say I think it's um while we hear the concerns and understand the concerns and traffic always follows unfortunately it always follows development, it never precedes it. Um and in an annexation situation, we can only mandate what happens within the boundaries of what is annexed. So we we can't mandate development outside of the property that the developer owns. The sticky problem is getting DOT and other things to to deal with peripheries, which is what we've heard tonight. And and and I I I hear you. I feel the pain on that. Um but what's important to note, at least for me, is that this development is happening whether we approve the annexation or not. Um it's going to either be septic or it's going to be sewer, but those homes will be built. Um and that makes a difference. So for me, you know, it's the benefit to the city,

Mr. Willing, to be part of it. Thank you. Thank you.

Our fight or the conflict is not with city council and adjacent communities that don't want to be in the city limits. It's bigger than that. It's what your representative talked about earlier about opposing our traditional path to growth and enacting legislation against that and considering the voluntary annexations as a loophole and the desire to close that. So without either of those, there is no growth. The other problem is something that we talked about recently is that Jacksonville doesn't always take from you. We give a lot. You work here. You shop here. And when you shop, you pay sales taxes. Mhm.

That sales tax should come back here and we wouldn't be in a predicament where this is the only way we grow when we have those revenues that the sales tax doesn't come back per capita like it should like a point of sale kind of thing. So that's what I mean when I say this is larger than this. We're considering all these things when we look at our avenues for growth. And if we're reduced to this, then we look at it differently. We want to be good neighbors. We want you to want to come to Jacksonville as the town center that hosts the courthouse and all of these things. We want to be a better town center. We're looking at ways right now where we can be a better attraction for you and everybody. camp lun and everybody. So, uh that's the predicament that we find ourselves in. Uh I'm glad the developers and the proponents spoke. Uh they need to come before you and face the fire and tell you what's in it for you. I think it's obvious what's in it for them and you see what's in it for us, but somebody's got to tell you what's in it for you. Um,

I'm a little troubled when the developer says Jacksonville, get on board or not because it's a tremendous benefit to the developer if we take over the roads. Who's going who's going to take over the roads? It's a tremendous benefit if we give sewer and he doesn't have to build septic tanks. Tremendous benefit. Tremendous benefit because you heard your representative say they don't have money for roads. So they know that it's a huge benefit. That's why they're here for us and you know we need to be, you know, open and honest about that that too. I don't have anything further. Can I add one more thing to his please?

Mr. Al, I have a question for you. as a developer, it cost you guys a lot more money to build those roads up to city standards versus county. It would save you incredibly a lot of money by building in the county, right? To the county specs versus ours. Is that correct? Very much so. You know, county, we can do strip pavement. City requires curb and gutter, wider streets, sidewalks on both sides of the streets, all the things that makes the city feel like the city. And uh yes, that's correct. And you have to have wider streets plus the culde-sacs have to be bigger and all that. and the stand the fire trucks and the trash truck or the fire trucks and trash trucks. All the things that follow. Yes, sir. Correct. As far as I have a question, Jason. As far as taking over the streets. Yes, sir. Is the county going to take over the streets?

County does not own streets, but DOT does. So, we would build and design the streets to DOT standards, which would be less than ours. Correct. Which would be less than ours. Correct. Yes, sir. Yeah. And then they'll have to take care of it at some point. That's right. Is there a HOA for this? Uh, all new developments built today have HOAs. Even thing anything in the city is going to have an HOA. A lot of the HOA requirements are for storm water concerns for builtupon areas taking care of the infrastructure. Don't a lot of HOAs take over roads in their subdivisions. If they're private streets and private Yes, that is true. If it's a private subdivision, and this won't be that. This this would we wouldn't plan for this to be.

Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't I can't bring you into the conversation at this point, Mr. Per. I'm sorry. This I got one thing I'd like to call I'm sorry we can't do it. That's You said it was not true. It's out of order. You gave him a second shot. We asked him a question. That's exactly right. I was on board transportation six years. I know a little bit about it. All right, council. There there's a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All opposed.

Okay. All right.

Members of city council, Mr. Mayor, thank you. Where's the developer? This meeting is still in session. Thank you. We're talking about a wonder. You can't compare to traffic.

See, they're saying they're wrong. question. Thank you. Have a good time. all did.

Thank you.

Y'all speak a lot better. I just I think it get the next stay inside. Good point. Anybody

want some water? Yes, sir.

Okay, here we go. Yes. Where's the What are you doing?

Okay.

Okay. We're nine, right? Appreciate you good work this thing. All right, we're going to go ahead and go on to item number eight for this evening. This is a public hearing map amendment, a zoning map amendment established city zoning for 169.92 acres at the intersection of Blue Blue Creek Road and Pony Farm Road to commercial corridor commercial and residential multifamily highdensity RMF HD. Mr. King is going to present this item.

Thank you, Mayor Councel. Uh these next two items are dealing with the same track of land that we were just speaking about with the annexation. Uh in 25 years, this is the first time we've had to do a resoning like these next two. I wanted to preface this u presentation with that. The first one we have to establish a base district because of the um the annexation that took place, but also because the applicant has submitted a petition to reszone the area to plan development. um residential and we we don't want to use a county base district for that base district because we don't keep the county zoning ordinance. We keep our own unified development ordinance. So, we want it to be an understandable item that's within the city council adopted ordinance. So, we're going to talk about one reasonzoning for that base district and then we're going to turn right around and talk about the specific reasoning that would follow. So, because of the annexation request, the general statutes state that we have 60 days, well, they recommend that we establish city zoning within 60 days. Technically, we can go a little bit longer than that, but we need to go ahead and convert it to a a city zoning district now that it's been annexed into the city. So, I'm not going to basically repeat all the the area information that we've already talked about tonight. Um, it is it it's it was zone residential 15 and community business in the county. Now we are proposing uh that you consider a city zoning district which is quarter commercial for the 17 roughly acres on the opposite side of Blue Creek Road and then residential multif family high density on the um the north side here on the drawing. Um as mentioned earlier this track to land is also in the flight path overlay which is what you see before you. um before you is the existing zoning with the county and what we are proposing. So, as you'll see on the screen, the orange area, the orange area is residential multif family high density. The red area to the south would

be the corridor commercial. Um both zoning districts allow different uses per article 41, which is the uh use table within the unified development ordinance. Um there's been some talk about this, so I want to clarify some of these items. There's different statutory requirements for annexation hearing notices versus um zoning or reszoning notices. So with a reszoning, which is now what we're talking about, the state statute says that we have to send out notices to adjoining property owners between 10 and 25 days. That's they give us a very narrow window that we have to send those letters to. We sent those nices to the adjoiners. That doesn't mean people that live a half mile down the road. That's just the adjoining property owners. Those letters are mailed to the um the recipients go to based on the tax information. So if you have property and you haven't got updated where your mail should go with the tax office, all we can do is use that tax information and that's where we sent the letters to. Additionally, we post signs which you see before you on the screen today. And um we also post legal advertisements in the newspaper. So, we identify we advertise three different ways to try to make folks aware that there is a proposed public hearing and that gives people an opportunity to come out and speak in favor or against. And I think that our notices, while some may have liked more time, I think that it was effective. I think last year in April, uh, we had a hearing before the council and there were some questions about inadequate signage that was posted. We think we've done a better job of that now where we post more signs to make sure that you know we're being as transparent as possible. So with this we're trying to establish base district which is RMFHD for the large track and then 17 acres would be quarter commercial. The planning board

recommended denial last week and this is the opportunity for city council to make the decision on the proposed zoning. Be happy to answer any questions that the council may have. questions of Brian. Well, obviously I went there on Monday because I know the density was a big issue and I know the multifamily is that going to be apartments or town homes. Is that

the the article RMFHD? The use table allows town houses, duplexes, single family, multif family there is a plethora of land uses that the RMFHD allows. Ryan, has any of that other any other tracks on uh Blue Creek Road been developed to any size or scale? I'm not sure. I don't I don't want to misspeak. I mean, I this is the only track that we've talked about is in the planning office as far as going into the city, but you haven't looked at any of the surrounding other than what's already there. I didn't see it's adjacent to several subdivisions, isn't it? That's what I thought. So,

let's go back to the map. There are some larger lots um along here. Let's see if I can get this thing to annotate. Okay, so you have some larger lots here and then you have some smaller, more dense lots on this side, most likely septic. So, therefore, you're probably talking 15, 30,000 square foot lots on this side. And then obviously, these are four or five acre lots. Okay. And this is just the beginning of the process. Uh they'll there'll have to be uh site plans approved and other things as as the pro as the project moves forward. Is that correct?

That is correct. We'll have subdivisions. We will have um site plans that will have to follow um well based on just the base district. Let's say that the next agenda item doesn't happen. There will be subdivision plans that will have to go through and be reviewed by the Jacksonville Technical Review Committee. We have outside agencies from both Duke and um Jones Enslow DOT. They all review the plans um that that are set forth. You have um so subdivisions that would be reviewed. If it triggers transportation impact analysises, then we would basically uh require those be done and studied as part of those developments. they have to trigger those um average daily trips in order to um be required. But all those items would be part of the development review. Then as far as like on the commercial side, we would have site plans, same thing. They would be reviewed by TRC. Any traffic impact analysis would be required and in typical fashion for the city. And if there's improvements that are recommended by the T the T the traffic impact study or analysis um those would be part of the site plan and approval process.

That is correct. And sometimes they they may be phased in. They may be once you get to a certain number of houses. Uh it just depends. DOT is going to have a role in this. Obviously it's their road. So they will have an opportunity to review that. Um Jacksonville standards for traffic impact analysis are higher than DOT's. Um, from what I understand, we have 100 AMR or PM trips or a thousand daily, whereas the DOT is a 3,000 average daily trip. So, the TI is going to be triggered sooner with city development than it is with um with DOT developments. And there's a lot of other other things that are required by the city that aren't necessarily required by the county.

We believe that the city does have a higher development standard. We believe that our our landscaping standards, sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, um the street construction, you it's it's to a higher standard and and part of that's because we intend to take over the road maintenance. So, we want to make sure that we get a quality project, you know, product that we are going to continue to maintain after it is um dedicated and accepted by city council. And that includes buffers between um between this project and existing property owners. That is correct. If there's a required buffer, then that is something that has to stay in perpetuity. And that could be trees, it could be a number of different things, right? That is correct.

Any other questions of Brian? Okay. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, councel. Okay. We're going to open up recess the regular meeting, open a public hearing on this matter. Uh, anyone wish to speak to this particular item? way back there.

And this is regarding the zoning. Yes. Okay.

Melissa Indicott. I'm at 1400 Blue Creek Road. So, my property directly adjoins this track that that they're trying to do. So, I completely understand the annexation. I completely understand development. Um, my problem is just the number, right? The amount that you're going to allow there. And just for some background, there is a subdivision right next to this property. But when that was put in in 2005, they required a turn lane at that point because of the traffic. Part of the bypass that they were going to redo included expanding um the end of Blue Creek Road with a turn lane. That was precoid. So our traffic level is already been established by DOT that it the road is not adequate. Um but of course they ran out of money during CO. So there's no more funding and that project's been postponed right now with no time frame um expected that they're going to complete that. So in addition to that, our schools are at capacity, the middle school is at capacity, the high school is at capacity. So it's not really that they're going to build homes, it's the number of homes, and also everything surrounding it is single family. So, I would expect like it would be another single family, right, to to maintain the um area for everybody that's living there and chose to live out there.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir.

My name is Tom Hair. I live at two 214 Meadow View Road on Landfill Road. So, one of the items uh that the only item really I want to speak about is um the amount of trash that is going to be accumulated from this this building project if it remains at single family homes. Um, I looked up the numbers. A person averages 4.9 pounds of trash per day, which comes out to uh roughly 13,000 lbs a year of trash that a single person de uh creates and generates. This is all coming down, you know, come off of Blue Creek Road, down Pony Farm, down Meet View. Um since 2017, uh that road the turn on to Meadow View Road or uh the loop road right there has been damaged from all the truck weight um on two different occasions where it's taken off the complete top layer of asphalt. Okay. So, if this remained at single family homes, you know, I don't I didn't calculate the numbers for 400 full families, um, but it's pretty significant. And if it went into multi-family dwellings where you're a single dwelling now is turned into six different families generating waste. All that's going into the county landfill and the trucks are in weighing out at uh 20 to 50,000 pounds a piece every day that's going down the road.

It's going by a school property. Um and that's it's a safety hazard. there was another project stopped at county project that was stopped because of the amount of um truck traffic that goes through that area. So that was that's my main concern is uh the damage that's going to be done from a multifamily or high density project as opposed to if they were single family homes. It's all I have. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. hands. Okay.

Before you speak, let me ask uh Anthony, that uh intersection there, Blue Creek, it's been a long time since I've been out of Blue Creek and Pony Farm Road, even though my grandparents lived on Grand Pony Farm Road for a long time. Is that a Is that a four-way stop there or is that I believe so. Yes, sir. It's not a traffic light. What would warrant a traffic light? I'm sure it probably would warrant a traffic signal and that's what we'll find out when we do the TIA.

Uh, frankly, um, the peak hour congestion out there like the folks have talked about would, you know, that would wouldn't say easily, but it would be eased if a traffic signal was installed. That way every vehicle doesn't have to stop as they progress through the intersection. So if I were to look into the future, I would expect that the TIA is going to say we need a traffic signal out there very likely with some turn lane improvements as well. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anthony, one question on that. I'm sorry, sir. So if that happens, does that happen right away or does that wait down the road till D has funding?

It depends. And so the the TIA is a very complicated process and um the purpose of the TIA is to mitigate the impact of the development that is being proposed and being permitted. Okay. If the improvement the the need for the improvement can be tied back to the development then the developer then has to build those improvements as part of their development plan. Now, I believe Ryan said earlier that it's very common for some of these improvements to be phased in over time, and I fully expect that that would be the case here with this project as well. Um, things that are caused by background traffic or traffic that exists there today, we would look to DOT to help with funding to make those improvements. We've been very successful in working with Senator Lazaro over the years to pull together um what what I call discretionary DOT funds to help build traffic signals. We did that at Plantation Boulevard and and Gum Branch. Uh we also are getting ready to do that at Williamsburg Plantation and Western Boulevard. So, you know, there's a number of different ways that we can get to where we need to go and the TIA will help inform that, but we don't know all of that information right now until we get further down the road with TRC review, additional design, etc.

They agree it would be it could provide some relief as far as the traffic. Absolutely. especially if we especially if we were able to partner with our uh delegates at the general assembly to secure some of that discretionary funding. Most recently, we were able to work with Senator Lazara for funding at um in Richlands to help make some intersection improvements there. So, it's certainly possible. We just have to reach out and talk to him about the problem. Okay. Thank you.

Oh, Mr. Prince, I had a question. On average, how much are those um traffic signals cost? That's a tough question, but I'll say on the cheap end 250 on the high end could be 750 750,000. That is Yeah. So, uh just for reference, the one that we're getting ready to build over on uh Williamsburg Plantation at Western, that one's probably going to be around 450. But those are multiple lanes though. Yes, sir. Yeah. been a lot of traffic

and it there is also a lag time in getting materials even since co. So, but you know the the good thing is is that um we've been able to work with with Tidewater and and and our friends here many times in the past to overcome similar challenges. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. I'm sorry about that. I I thought that was something that need to be clarified while I was thinking about it. So,

yeah. I My name is Angel Alexander. I live at 543 OCI Drive and I think the main issue for me is is I moved in that area over 25 years ago because it's a more relaxed area and um you don't have all the city hustle and bustle and we are close to the city so that pro provides us a little bit of you know we spend money in the city as well and taxes but we do not want the city to be encroaching into our area and with that being in that area that kind of puts like a foot and I think that's what all the other residents are thinking is that now the city's in our area they've been trying to come in our area for a few years and we've been able to stop it and then now it's like, "Hey, you guys are going to be there and then before you know it, our relaxed living is no longer relaxed living." And then everything that we've worked for cuz we bought our home there thinking we're going to, you know, live and die there and now we're going to have all these other issues around us and the developer doesn't care because he doesn't live in our neighborhood and and nobody on the council lives in our neighborhood. It doesn't experience what we did. It didn't buy their home in our neighborhood for the reasons that we bought. you bought your home in your neighborhood for your reasons and we bought our home in our neighborhood for our reasons and I don't feel like those are being looked at. So that's why I was what I wanted to say.

Thank you. way back in the back.

Van Marshburn, I live 457 for Lockam Road. Mine's really more of a question. Uh, I understand development. I understand single family homes and I have some understanding of the need to for a developer to be able to put sufficient uh you know structures in to you know to get return on on their investment and and this may have been said really asking the question to them. I like I understand the number of uh single family homes I have absolutely no problem with that. I am very concerned when we start talking about a high density multif family, start talking about uh you know um because right now on Blue Creek Road there's a set of apartments going up and I would hate to think we're going to put 15 or 20 of those in there. Can can can they answer the question, how many units do they anticipate putting on this piece of property? not just the number of single family homes, but the number of doors where people be living uh you know that would equate to X number of families living on that piece of property. I would just left not to answer that if they can do that.

Thank you. Is that something you're prepared to do at this time or you need

Jason Hston 306 New Bridge Street. Um what we're doing here now is setting the base district. And so a lot of these questions probably go away when we go to the next agenda item and we actually show you what we're going to be doing as part of the planned development, you know, that we're going to be doing. Um I guess though to answer that question is, you know, we we wanted to retain the right to be able to do some multif family. The developer uh wants to do town homes. Um the majority of the site's going to be single family. Uh but we do have an area that we want to do town homes in and we want to reserve the right to be able to have some fluctuation in case the world changes, right? So, you know, if if in two years from now single family housing ain't selling and we need to to get some more starter homes, town homes, something that's at a better price point, we would we want that flexibility to be there. Now, that being said, the you you RMFHD is a much higher density standard than the county zoning currently has, but we're not planning to do anything that dense. And you you'll see that when you get to the next one when we get there. Uh, but we had always planned on doing single family and multif family in the commercial areas. So,

I hope that answers that question. Well, if you'll just keep that question. So, just to say it, the county right now, we can do 490 homes uh on the R15 side and we can do 160ish homes on the other side. I think that allow they allow 10 units per acre in highway business and you know one every 15,000 square feet for the R15 zone.

Thank you. All right. Any hands? Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing in this matter. And council, you're being asked to u I got it in front of me. to uh consider the resoning request, proposed resoning requests. Mr. Mayor, I move that we grant the resoning upon the finding that it is reasonable and meets the findings of A throughJ and that it advances the public interest and sets the base zoning for us to consider further action. Second.

Have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion amongst the council hearing? None. All in favor signify by saying I. All oppose. Motion carries. Now we get to hear the details. Okay. Did say nine, did it? I can't I can't see this thing. Nine.

Okay. I can't see the screen here. All right. This is agenda item number nine. This is public hearing for zoning map amendment for reszoning property located intersection blue creek road pony farm road to a plan development residential or PD-R and Ryan King will be presenting this item. Ryan, thank you mayor and councel. Um same track to land for the third straight fourth straight item but this is the third straight item. um familiar with the site, familiar with the existing zoning prior to the reszoning that just occurred. So all this is based on prior to your action. Uh the developer has submitted a request to reszone that base district to plan development residential with a plan development residential district. There there there's part of that is um terms and conditions and also a master plan. So, this is something that the mayor and council, if you approve this, it's very specific on what can happen in terms of uses, um, densities, landscaping requirements, parking requirements, all those items that, um, the developer can help mold into what they would like to see happen. Um, I will note that on the the plans, a lot of what the developer has done here has been um they're referring to the unified development ordinance. What that means is versus them trying to create a special standard, they're saying we just want to do what the unified development ordinance requires. We're not asking for flexibility with landscaping. We're not asking for flexibility with uh road networks, whatever it may be. So if you look on the on the TA data block there on your amended attachment um F that uh is at your places before you today, they specify those items

prior during the planning board meeting. There was two items of concern that staff had um that the applicant has amended since it went to planning board. So, the question was asked on the last item, what's changed? Well, they've modified the plan development district to only specify the uses that the unified development ordinance allows. They're not asking for additional uses beyond what the PDR district allows. And then there was also con um some proposal related to modifications and amendments. There's specific language in the unified development ordinance that says if they want to make changes to this, some things can be done administratively and there's other items that have to go back through the same public hearing process. And they were proposing to kind of create some standards and we said no, we have to follow what the unified development ordinance states for that. So in your terms and conditions, which is your other attachment that's before you tonight, they have stripped through those items. It's it's no longer on that terms and conditions. So that's no longer part of it. So now they have basically alleviated the concerns that planning board uh that planning staff had when we met with planning board. So in the recommendation line, we're no longer um recommending contingent upon the applicant amending those two items because they've done that. So items on this master plan include if you look in the Burgundy area, those are identified as single family or multif family. That gives them the flexibility to do either or. Now, they could do all town houses, they could do all single family based on this plan development. Um, the orange area and the yellow area are identified for commercial and commercial and multifamily. So, they're kind of showing how the road network is going to look like, what the the land uses are. Once again, they're not asking for reduced setbacks. They're not asking for reduced landscaping requirements. Uh, that would be per the unified development ordinance. Um, one

of the things that the the applicant has has modified since the planning board meeting last week is they've identified uh you'll see some the green along Blue Creek Road here. Let's see if I can get a color to work here for you. They show a green area along this area. They've also now added a a buffer, a 10-ft buffer along that area and then also along this boundary. They did not have that prior to um tonight's meeting. So, they've added some preserve you preserving some buffering area within that uh along the periphery um next to those single family subdivisions that are adjoining. It may end up being more than 10 ft, but they've at least identified that there will be a 10-ft buffer um within that area. um be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um like I stated on the previous item, the planning advisory board did recommend denial of this item based on um this the previous re the previous zoning item as well. Um we will have to amend the camel land use plan to reflect this area since it's now been brought into the city's jurisdiction. So that's an item that we will have to bring forth as well. But I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have at this time.

Questions of Ryan Council. Ryan, if if the plan development doesn't ask for anything outside of the UDO, what's the benefit of a plan development? I'm just curious why do it if it's not really changing anything. That's a good point. I think that basically what you have here is it gives them the the flexibility to go either way on the left side. um it gives them the ability to to reduce those standards. Why they didn't reduce them beyond many I don't know. So um just curious

curious minds want to know. I I think from a from a city council perspective and I think also from maybe from the resident standpoint is everything on this left-hand side is identified as single family and multifamily versus um commercial and multif family in that area or vice versa. So just clarifying. Got it. Thank you. This could be a a mixture of town homes and single family homes. Uh or it could be all town houses or it could be all single family. You know, we know that the market swings.

So, if they want to pivot and go towards town houses, they have that ability to do that. They have the ability to do that with the base district as well. But, you know, this that preserves this as well. So, apartments would not be allowed with the multif family. Yes, they could. Okay. But they haven't proposed apartments.

Um, they would need to specify that the area in in the the Burgundy area would not be allowed to have apartments if that's something that they would like to eliminate if that's a concern. And the PD allows them to do that. It allows them to kind of adjust their proposal, but once it gets adopted, the only way that it can be modified is to go back through the process unless it's a minor amendment. Is that a possibility? Is that Yes. on the apartments addition that the developer would consider we have no intention of building any apartments.

I think ease a lot of people's minds about that part of it. I mean, I know town homes are still, you know, higher density to single family, but I think the biggest concern, I know that's what the planning board had was having a huge apartment complex go there. That was one of the biggest things and thank you for answering a lot of these questions within a week. I mean, that's to get all this stuff revised and taken care of. Mayor, could I just add, you know, one of the things when you look at affordable housing and some of the comments that that you hear in the state about, you know, with with the price of housing in construction, single family homes are more expensive per square foot. So if if you're trying to meet certain market, you know, and you're trying to get some more affordability, then that kind of drives you towards things like town homes and that. So I mean you know we can't control that but if we allow the you know the possibility of that and and a developer wants to target some of the uh you know more affordable housing market then they can build something that the price range is going to be a little more attainable.

I think that's a condition I think I would like to see on this moving it forward. I have no other beef with it, but I think a condition that apartments are excluded from the multif family would be appropriate here given particularly that the developer is amendable to it. What do we have to do to do that? Included if there an agreement to modify the terms and conditions in the master plan that your your motion would include that revision to the the PDR and the master plan and the terms and condition. All right. Any other questions or Ryan?

Thank you, Ryan. Thank you. All right. So, at this time, we'll recess the regular meeting, open up the uh public hearing on this matter. Any wish, any hands to speak on this matter? Seeing none, I'm close the public hearing. Council, you're being asked to uh consider the reszoning request. May I move that we approve the reasonzoning request on the condition of uh uh the builders not uh including apartments? I'll second. Okay, you have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I.

All oppose. Motion carries. That brings us to number 10 for tonight. And this will if I never get back to it again without doing that. Caper. All right. We have the consolidated annual performance evaluation report. Caper for midyear performance.

Good evening, mayor, council. How are you doing? I am Pamela Trafton, senior neighborhood improvement services coordinator, and I come before you this evening to do our midyear performance for our fiscal year 25 annual action report. So for an introduction and explanation, the caper stands for the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report, which allows us to tell what we've done for our current fiscal year. And so what you will see tonight is a update on where we have accomplished within our current annual action plan. As a reminder, our caper is based off of our community development block grant funds, which is federally funded through the US Department of Housing Urban Development. And when we utilize our CDBG funds, it must meet one of three goals. to ensure that we're benefiting low and moderate income persons or a specific area that we are doing slum and blight removal or we're addressing an urgent need such as in the past CO 19 when we received funds specifically for that disaster. So before you you have our goals that we identified within our annual action plan for fiscal year 25 through 26 and this is based off of the feedback that we receive from the community when we do our community input sessions and our public hearings such as tonight. So with our first goal clearance and demolition we have a goal of 10 structures demolished. At the time of presentation, one was complete, but I'm happy to say that we have completed our second one as of today. Um, so we have two complete. our nonprofit funding. This is partnership that we've had with Enso Community Outreach, Enso Victim Center, and for Williams Outreach to assist with our homeless population and with those that are facing disasters of rapid

rehousing or not being able to take care of their rental assistance. We've already assisted 266 persons with the nonprofits that we are partnered with currently. our residential rehab. We are looking to assist four households. There's been an update since our last presentation. We actually have two homes that are currently in process of our residential rehab with one pending. And this is opportunities for our elderly to take advantage of being able to receive assistance with their residential rehabs um within the city limits. our down payment assistance, being able to assist those future home owners being able to purchase homes and realizing that there's gap financing that's needed between the price of the homes and how much they are being approved for. We've already assisted one family um this year, being able to become a homeowner with our down payment assistance program, and we are looking forward to assist more um with the future changes that we've had with our program. With the acquisition, it's an opportunity for us to be able to go in and acquire properties to be able to bring affordable housing to our low moderate income families. We've have a goal of four homes and we've acquired two with one more on the horizon. Our multif family development. This is a partnership that we've had with East Carolina Community Development and with Carolina Statewide that they have a goal of 84 units to construct. Caroline, excuse me, East Carolina is currently in the process now of 12 of those units and we will be having contracts soon for the 72 units. And with economic development, this is our newest partnership. We've partnered with Genesis Block. Genesis Block's goal

is to assist us with um future small business owners. So from our small business owners that are going from concept of I would like to be a business owner to actual implementation in business owners. It's also an opportunity for those that are current business owners of microenterprises which means that you are a business of one to five employees with the Genesis block. They have a cohort called Jumpstart Academy where they are actually working with the business owners one on-one and it's at no cost to them to be able to attend. They will just have to go through the sign up process and again we're making sure that we are working with our low moderate income business owners. So for those that may not realize that they are a low moderate income, if they have an idea of I would like to have a business or they have been a mobile unit and they're looking to eventually become into brick and mortar, this is an opportunity that we are working with our business owners currently.

Pam, isn't there a jump start event in the beginning of March? Mhm. Yeah, we do have one. And we've actually have six that's currently in their first cohort. And the demo day is March 5th. And so we'll get that flyer to you if you do not have it already. How many started out? I mean, you have six now, but how many started? That was the first class. That was for So all six stayed with the program until this point and they're currently still in. Yes, ma'am. Awesome.

Now, what is the time frame from start to finish? What what is Genesis block giving them as far as from concept to um moving forth in their business? What window is it? A six-month window. How long would that one cohort have to go throughout the um entire process? I'll have to get their exact time frame for you. So that way um for those as you pass the information along be able to share along because it is a commitment for them to be able to go forth and start from being able the demo day is to allow those that are in attendance to be able to say exactly what their business is and an opportunity for those for a pitch. Yes.

Oops. Um, so as we talk about affordable housing, I want to highlight um our home that we currently have constructed at 408 an Street. This home is available for our next homeowner. It is a three-bedroom, 2 and a half bath at $28,650. And this home was made available again through our community development block grant funding. And to be able to qualify for this home, they must attend our home ownership program, attending the classes with our money management, and also doing one-on-one counseling sessions within our department. Those are the requirements specifically for those that are going through the home buying process. And just to highlight our schedule, we have our upcoming classes for our home buyer courses. They're $25 per person and you will receive a certificate as we are certified housing counseling agency. And just to put in perspective as our housing counseling agency, the city of Jacksonville is the only one that's within Enso County. Your closest ones are within Wilmington or within Greenville. So for anyone that is looking to become a homeowner that must go through housing counseling services, they're coming through the doors of City of Jacksonville to receive those services.

Do you allow for additional dates where there may be a private group that would want that class?

Yes, ma'am. We can schedule oneonone and I would just need to schedule accordingly with the other presenters. our money management class, we have one scheduled for this Saturday. This is a free class as of now and I put that caveat there. Um, so it is from 9 to 1 and this is the second class that's required for those that are either one wanting to go through the home buying process or just want to go through and have their financial counseling taken place and learning more about money management. I always challenge anyone to go through our money management class, especially when they say, "Oh, I don't need it. Pass that on to somebody else." And I say, "Nope, come to the class." And as soon as they come to the class, they'll say, "Wow, I did not know that." So, I offer this class to everyone to come. And as I said, it is free as of now.

All right. in an opportunity to help our program, help our um opportunity to receive more contractors because that was an opportunity for us when we were looking to have residential rehab projects done or for home ownership programs. We offered for the first time a working with the city of Jacksonville workshop. This was an opportunity that contractors, developers, and their administrators could come and hear one- on-one from the departments of neighborhood improvement services, permit planning, finance, and engineering. It was an opportunity for them to be able to speak directly and hear directly from the professionals that would take their project from bid to certificate of occupancy. It was well attended with almost 40 in attendance and the buzz was when is the next one. So we are very excited to be able to offer that this year and we're looking forward to having one within the summer. Our annual nonprofit board development conference, we just hosted it this past week, sorry, the beginning of this month. And this was a annual conference that we host for our board developments. And this provides an opportunity for our nonprofits to be able to receive the training that's required of them if they do not receive it on their own. The required training allows them to be able to submit their grant applications when it is time for them to submit for the upcoming funding cycle. And we had over 80 in attendance over the three days.

Miss Trafton. Yes, ma'am. The requirement for this do they have to do it every year? If they do not do their training on their own. So the requirement within our application is at least 51% of their board has to have received formal training. So if the nonprofit is not scheduling training on their own, then this is our last chance before the application is due for you to come in and receive training. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Now, as a plug, as a followup within our current midyear plan is that we are in our current cycle for our fiscal year 2627 action plan. And so I place this QR code on the screen as the deadline is Friday for any feedback to received on our current. So just as you saw where our goals were in our current midyear, those goals can change based off of the survey and the feedback that we receive off of this cycle. So if there is anything of importance and I say that to the viewing audience as well that is of importance to you, then definitely take the survey because we will then turn around and compile all the information and put the action plan together and we'll be back before you for the approval to submit that to HUD. So you need a pro you need a public hearing for now. All right. So at this time we'll recess the regular meeting and re and uh open the uh public hearing on this matter. Is there anyone wishes to speak to the to the plan at this point and I know you have the uh QR code here for any comments

by February 20th. Mhm. Not too far off. Yes, sir.

Um I'm wondering with the areas that we have in the city of Jacksonville, like in the New River area, there's many condemned properties um that have been boarded up and all that. Is there a way that this group can um partner with like the local college building classes and you know tear down some of those that are non-usable anymore

still belongs to somebody. It's still private property. So that's that's that kind of got us in kind of a a bind to be able to do anything. Can the city um require that those owners do something with the properties because they're an eyesore to the to the city? I mean, it happens all over the country. So, madam attorney, I don't think I can really discuss this with him kind of since there's ongoing litigation. I mean, it's

Yes, sir. Those are very valid questions and there are resources online that can answer some of those questions for you. Um, the school of government out of North Carolina, the University of North Carolina has a lot of really good publications about what we can and can't do for affordable housing, but of course we are limited because a lot of these properties are owned by private parties. So, at this point, we can't really answer specifically, but I would refer you to their website for some really good resources. Okay. I was, you know, there's there's avenues to take care of. Sorry, we can't discuss it any further, but you know, thank you. Good ideas, Mr. Mr. Willahan. Good ideas.

There was a program and I don't know if you all still do it in community development where they partnered with the city to build affordable housing. I worked on two of them myself. I took the class out at Coastal and we built two houses as part of the um affordable housing program. I don't know if you all still do that, but

we do not currently, but I do have our director Tracy Jackson who may have been here during that time to give additional information. Councilman Willingham, you are absolutely correct. We partner with Coastal and with Southwest High School and doing pre-construction and we would have those units uh moved to the site and then the students would come and finish the house. So, we have several structures um within the city for firsttime home ownership um located um on Colin Street and in our Southshore um area. But you're absolutely right.

Thank you, Tracy. It was the create program to be specific. All right. Well, I have the public hearing open. Is there anyone else wishes to speak to this plan? See, seeing no one, I'll I don't see anyone. I'll I'll close the public hearing and council been asked to receive this uh update input.

Mayor, may I make a comment? I I certainly appreciate uh uh Community Development's efforts, not only for affordable housing, which is really important, but the other things they're doing as far as re-entry and um domestic child abuse, all those things that uh that plague our community, they've been working on for a long time. So, I I appreciate your efforts and in uh partnering with nonprofits to make our community a better place to live. Need a motion to accept, sir? Yes, I do. So moved. Second. We have a motion and second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I.

All opposed. Let's go real quickly to reports. I'll start with you, Council Member Smith. I'm going to honor the audience and reserve that until our next meeting. Thank you.

Uh, first I'd like to recognize Laura Reddy. She she received the 25 2025 hire vets medallion award by the department of labor. You know, in our community, it's so important that we uh that we support our military and um that's just an example of how we uh how we support our military or how people in our community support our military. So, I'd like to recognize her for that. The other thing is that uh uh Councilwoman Smith and I were at a a meeting at one place and talked about the challenges for child care which impacts economic development and things like that. So, um if you haven't gone to any of those meetings, I would encourage you to do that because child care is so important. You know, the first 2,000 days of a child's life are the most important. They develop their character. So, um, investing in child child, um, care in our community is extremely important.

Dr. question. Um, just quickly, mayor, I had the opportunity to represent the city of Jacksonville at our recent African-American readin that was held at Jack at um, recreation center as well as women and STEM program um, at Sturgeon City. Dr. Willingham, no report. I'll follow suit. No report. No pro. Very brief.

Very brief. I just want to say congratulations to uh Councilwoman Washington for her reappointment as chair of the National League of Cities Advisory Council board. And I believe this has been mentioned once before, but I wasn't here to celebrate it, so I'm going to repeat it. Congratulations to Mr. Ron Massie for being selected as assistant municipal manager of the year. Yes.

Otherwise, no report, Mr. Ray. Thank you, mayor. Can't guarantee brevity. Um, want to start out with a one city moment. Great job by Pamela Trafton who has left the building. Uh, that's a great report, especially for our one city because the efforts, as Mr. Nero said, the efforts of our neighborhood improvement services team uh do reach outside of just what a lot of people think and they they go a lot deeper within our community. So, uh, awesome start for our recognitions. We did have, as been previously mentioned by multiple people, our African-American readin, and that happened on February 8th at Jack Amiiet. So once again, kudos to our recreation team for bringing to together the community for an event. But more importantly, kudos to the people that that showed up and that were present and that were active. If no better screen exists, this is the one we should resonate with for the rest of uh for the rest of the night. And I would say maybe for a long time. Uh kids being active, being uh having a voice and being out in public, showing up and bringing their voice with them. That's that's the value of everybody that was here at this meeting tonight. Uh this is encouraged at a young a young age and it should continue to be encouraged because everybody seems happy and if nothing else, happiness goes a long way in curing a lot of the things that ill us. Uh you'll see here award-winning poet Keith Soul from the Fateville Detour team. Um multiple awards nationally and we had Fateville's own right here in Jacksonville. Uh you going through some of his poems and quotes. Um and then we also had the Sandy Run Missionary Baptist Church and the Coastal Carolina Volunteer Choir bringing us a joyful sound to the members that are present. Um when we when we come together in opportunities to share how we feel then there's a lot of value there and when we

can make a a joyful noise out of that then it to me it gives a lot more value. So to see the group come together again this year is fantastic. Then right here you're going to recognize part of the recreation department put on a program that told the story of Jackie Robinson. So that's why you're seeing the Dodgers 42. It's not just something that people do every once in a while. It's something that we do every year, not just through the Major League uh baseball, but we do this in communities around the globe. So, it's Jackie Robinson's story is not just a story that's in the United States, it's around the world. And there's a lot of civic pride there. And then the uh the gentleman there wearing the Patriots hat, we want to give him credit, too, because go Patriots. They played in the Super Bowl. They did not score as many points as the other team, but it's great. It's next to you, Dr. Washington. So, just want to point that out. Um, so for this event, uh, the the students also received their certificates. The certificates sometimes don't mean a lot to some of us, but they mean a lot to the people that show up and for our kids when they are honored for being present, for having a voice and being a part of the program that's bigger than themselves. I believe that that resonates with them for the rest of their lives. It doesn't matter if they're in a sport. It doesn't matter if they're reciting spoken word, if they're singing, if they're in the church choir, or if they're part of Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. when they're there together as a as a group, it resonates for our community. So once again, for the parks department and all the partners that helped to put on this event, which is much bigger than just the parks department, kudos to our community and kudos to our kids and everyone that were present. Uh this next one, mayor, this last one I have, but it's a little more interesting. Um we created the celebrate and skate at Kur Street Recreation Center. So, we took the volleyball courts that were resurfaced or we put the the tennis courts that were resurfaced in the area that our pickle ballers use and we turned it into an ice skating rink. So, as some have said, if you can't get people to use park space, it's not because the people don't want

to use it, it's because you didn't give them enough opportunity. We have brought a skating rink to Kur Street. And we have happy people, we have bruised people, and we have families and kids that are having a good time. and it's safely having a good time. So, once again, for for Parks and Wreck and the community partners that make these things happen, fantastic. And then once here's here's some of our partners here. You're going to see uh Gourmet Funnel Cakes. You're going to see Lavender Ring Cafe. They were there providing sweet treats. So, we have an opportunity for a public engagement effort. Our food trucks show up and support these efforts. It is community built and it was community enjoyed. Excellent job by everybody to be present and again happy faces are are valuable. The last thing I did tell you a lie. Mayor had one more thing. This earlier this afternoon we were able to welcome the River of Life Church to uh present back to the recreation team their annual donation. And I say it's an annual donation not because it's something that we should count on, but it's because something that's part of their mission. and they deliver this to the city every year. And every year that I've been here, they've been here in the years before, they show up to be present and to say, "This is what we do as part of our church fellowship and ministry." And um Mr. Milton showed up. He's the director of the children's ministry. They brought a team. The mayor was able to recognize them and to receive those funds. These funds will be utilized within our community to make an impact on the youth of Jacksonville. So kudos to them as a strong partner for showing up every year and for showing up throughout uh 365 days a year to serve their ministry.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Josh. At this time, we are going I'd entertain a motion to go into close session to discuss uh land acquisition and uh some information about a ongoing mitigation. So moved. Second. I'm sorry, Lauren. Did Did you uh have anything? No, sir. Thank you. All right. Motion to go into close session. You made it. Who second it? Right. And all those in favor signify by saying I. I.